Striping mechanism for knitting-machines.



G. L. BMLARD. STRIPING NIEcIIANIs I FOR KNITTING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 22, I914.

L5JQ$I v Patanted Feb.5,191&

3 SHEETSSHEET I.

G. L. BALLARD.

STRIPING MECHANISM FOR KNlTTl-NG MACHINES.

APPLICATION men MAY 22. 1914.

Mo Emma Feb. 5,1918.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

15; Egg 1 G. L. BALLARD.

STRIPING MECHANISM FOR KNITTING MACHINES- APFLICATION FILED MAY 22, I914- Patented Feb. 031918.,

3 SHEETS SHEET 3- stance, sweaters.

a ruism u-m Jam flililli lhllill'l llbfil i ffiitlhl' EElQhLLATBZD, OF NORRISTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR T WILD llllfirlll MFG. 50., A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

e. A s-1 2i) ll 1 3d.

Specification of Letters .Patcnt.

Patented hell. 5, Mild.

Application filed May 22, 1914:. Serial No. 840,378.

, f'h all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, GEORGE 'LAWSON l'iilinnnnn, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Norristown, Pa, have invented. certain new and useful Improvements in Striping Mechanism for Knittinglldachines, oil. which the following is'a specili'lfitttlflll.

The invention consists in the features and combination and arrangement of parts here inaitter described and particularly referred to in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings-.

l? l is a front view of so much of a circular machine as is'necessary to a clear understanding of my invention which is shown applied thereto. The yarn changing devices are shown slightly displaced in position for convenience of. illustration.

Fig. 2 is a rear view ofpart of the controlling mech anism.

Fig, 3 is a view of a detail.

a a plan view of Fig. 1 with the upper structure and knittinghead partly broken away and showing a portion of the low structure.

Fig. 5 is a detail side view.

6 a detail plan view.

7 a side view.

Fig, 8 a detail Front view of one of the striper attachments.

9 is a view of a detail.

While features of my invention may be applied to machines of various types and in various waysfin the particular example of my invention herein disclosed I show the invention as applied to a machine oil. the roneedle cylinder type, and while my invention may he applied to machines for making various articles and tubular tabvarious diameters, in the particular "lit in own it is illustrated in. connection with body machine for making, for inl'n the drawings 1 indicates the rotary needle cylinder, 2 the cam cylinder. Disd at different points, say tour in num- .l her, about the needie cylinder and fixed in re l Each striper comprises pair of tecdiingers consistof arms w and r pivoted. at 3 and "ation thereto are the stri ers.

pressed. by springs 3 to their low positions ".h'u' feeding their yarn to the needles. The inner ends of these yarn feed fingers have curved upwardly extending portions which are each provided with two guide eyes or openings, the yarn being led first through the upper opening or eye 4: and thence inwardly through the lower eye 4 to the needles. The yarn is directed to the feed fingers by a guide 5 one for each striper, only one however, being shown in Fig. 1. These guides are fixed on the dial cap 6, each guide having two openings, one for say a white yarn w and the other for a red yarn r. These yarn guides extend down to a point about on a level with the upper ends of the yarn feed fingers when the latter are in their lowered positions and they are provided with a piece of felt or fibrous material 7, against and under the lower edge of which the yarn is drawn when either yarn finger is lifted out of work, the finger when solifted having its upper eye occupying a position some distance above the lower end of the yarn guide so that slack will be drawn when the yarn finger is raised to provide the necessary excess or slack when this yarn end is introduced to the needles again. In so drawing this slack the felt, wool or other fibrous material places a drag or restraint on the yarn to prevent the yarn feed finger drawing off too much. The yarn fingers may be raised to withdraw their yarn from the needles by various means but in the particular construction shown controllers or cams 8 are used one for each stripcr attachment.

These controllers are fixed to rock shafts 9, operated each by an arm 10 at its upper end connected by a-linkll with the disk or plate 12 arranged to turn about the dial post 13, and when so turned this disk will operate all of the links 11 and these will operate their respective arms 10 and cause the cams or said arms at the. outer end thereof and tip the same down, thus lifting the inner end and raising the yarn feed finger, together with its yarn, from the needles, this action taking place against the power of the spring 3. When the cam shaped controller is moved from over either yarn finger arm this arm will be lowered by its spring to put the yarn carried thereby in work.

Each striper also comprises a yarn cutter and clamp. The. cutter consists of a fixed shear blade It and a movable blade 15. the latter being pivotally mounted at 16 and being operated by an anal? attached to its pivot or shaft.

This arm is connected by a link 17 with an arm 18 of a hollow sleeve 19 turning about the rock shaft 9 above mentioned. This sleeve has an arm 20 at its upper end connected by a link 21 with a second disk also mounted to turn about the dial post. \Vhcn this disk is operated the movable shear blades (tour in the example shown) will be operated to open or close as the case may be.

Associated with each yarn cutter is a clamp for holding the end of the yarn when raised out of work and severed by the cuttor. and while the; may be variously arranged and constructed, in the particular form of the invention shown it consists of a spring plate 23 held by screws 2% and overlying the cutter blades.

Each striper has a bracket for supporting the various parts thereof above (lescribed. aml each bracket is held on a post 26 by a set screw 27, the post being support.- ed in the usual cam ring.

For operating the cen ral disks and thereby operating the yarn feed fingers and yarn cutters. I employ contact means located in part on the rotary portion of the machine and in part. on the fixed portion. These con: tact. devices may be variously constructed and arranged according to the particular type of machine to which my invention is applied, but in the particular construction shown I employ a pair of star wheels 28, 29 on shafts or drums 30, mounted in a standard 31, fixed to the stationary base ring 32 of the machine, this ring, as in usual practice supporting by stauduI'dsf-B, the fixed base ring 3 c of the knitting head. The star wheel 28 has its shaft. or drum connected with a rod by a pin 36 which is arranged eccentric to the center of the shaft or drum. The upper end of this rod is connected by a bell crank lever 37 and a link 38 with the upper central disk 12 and when these parts are operated, as will be presently described, the central disk is turned and through the several links 11 the controllers or cams S are operated.

The bell crank. lever is pivoted to a collar 39 fixed on one of the posts 40 which support the usual upper yoke 41, which in turn supports the dial post 13. The shaft. or drum of the star wheel 2!) has a cam formed therewith or fixed thereto, and this may be formed by flattening the sides of the extension of the said shaft or drum. This cam operates upon a lever 43, Figs. 2 and 4, which described the links 21 will all be operated.

sinmltaneously to operate the movable shear blades. The parts are so arranged that whenthe cam 42 depresses the lever 43 theshear blades 15 will all be closed to cut the yarn which has just been raised out of work and when the low flat-side of the cam allows the lever 43 to rise under the action of its spring 4.) all of the shear blades will be opened, this happening when the yarn is to be introduced to the needles again.

It. may be mentioned here that the movable shear blades act in connection with the spring clamp to hold the. yarn, said blade at. the time of cutting the yarn serving to push the end under the spring clamp plate to be held thereby, and therefore upon the opening movement. of the shear blade the yarn end which has been held thereby in connection with the spring clamp will be released, this taking place as above described at the time the yarn is thrown into work.

The star wheels have each four arms or points, two of these are narrow as at b and the other two are wide as at 0.

For operating the starwhcels (a quarter turn at each action) pins 50, 51 are provided on the rotary take-up ring 52. this ring rotating with the needle cylinder in the direction of the arrow .r in Fig. 4. This ring is connected with the cylinder to rotate therewith by the standards or posts 53, which posts as in usual practice. furnish the supports for the take up rolls 5%. Fig. 1. The pin50 is slidably mounted in a standard or post 55 fixed to the revolving take-up ring 52 while the pin 51 is fixed by a screw 56 in a standard 57 carried by said revolving take-up ring. The sliding pin 50 is operated by a lever 58 pivoted to the pin 51 at 59, said lever being in turn operated by the pin 60 slidably mounted in a post (31 also supported on the revolving take-up ring. A cam 62 isverticallyadjustable so as to locate itsedge 62' to be eitherin the plane of the pin 60 for pushing it inwardly as the pin rides upon the inner surface of said cam or to be in the plane of travel of the pin 50 to push it inwardly. The cam is guided in its 7 consist of a rod 65, a lever 66 pivoted at 6i" and operated by pins 68 which may be set at ditlerent points according to the pattern desired on a pattern wheel 69, these pins being in the form of screws adapted to be screwed into or removed from holes in the wheel indicated at 70 to change thepattern. The cam is moved down in line with the pin 30 by the pattern lever and the connection described and it is moved to its upper limit to be in line with the pin 50 by a spring 71.

The machine is shown, Figs. 1 and l, with the white yarn w in work and the red yarn 1' out of Work, the yarn finger 1' having been lifted by the controller or cam 8 riding on the outer or tail portion of said arm and tipping its inner end upwardly. The pin 50 which operates only upon the narrow teeth of the star wheel, is in its innermost position, having been moved to this position y the cam edge 62. The pin 60 is in its outermost position but being in a low plane it'will not be operated by the cam edge 62 which is now in its uppermost position. Furthermore,.it will be noticed that the star wheels have been left in such position thatftheir narrow arms are lowermost and as the pin 50 is at its inward limit it will pass these narrow arms without contacting therewith, Again it will be observed that the fixed pin 51 being only long enough to reach the wide arms 0, this pin will likewise v be inefi'eotive in the position in which the -machine is shown because the wide arms or teeth of the star wheels are above the plane of movement of this fixed pin. The pin 60, as before stated, travels in a path below that of the star wheels and has no effect thereon,

the function of this pin, when operated by the cam 62, being to operate the lever 58 to project the pin outwardly to operate the star wheels by striking their narrow arms or teeth. supposing the yarns are to be changed by withdrawing the white and introducingihe red yarn, the pattern mechanism will move the cam 62 down so that its edge 62 will be in the plane of travel of the pin 60. As the pin 60 comes around it rides upon thecam edge-62' and is moved inwardly and through the lever 58, operates to throw the high long pin 50 outwardly, which high pin is long enough, as above stated, to reach the narrow teeth of the star wheels when so moved outwardly.

(ln giving the first star wheel 28 a quarter turn by contact er the long pin 50 the crank shaft of the star wheel is given a quarter turn, lifting the rod 35 half way up and this through the upper central disk 12 moves the controller 8 to central position which allows the red yarn guide r to fall.

The high long pin 50 after operating); the first star wheel and having lowered the red yarn guide 1', passes on to the second star wheel 29 and operates this a quarter turn by engaging with the narrow tooth thereoli. This operates through rod 465 to open the cutter or shear blade by swinging the HWVW able blade inwardly, These two actions,

6.. lowering the red yarn linger r and opening the shear blade, releases thered yarn 9" from the clamp 23 and places it in work. w

As soon as this opening of the shear blade has been completed the middle pin til, which is shorter than the pin 50, strilresthe broad. toothof the first star wheel 28 and gives this another quarter turn which. hasthe'eflfect throwin out or upwardly the white yarn guide in with the result that this new enters so the shears to be severed and'clana redu The middle pin 53. now contacts with the broad tooth of the second star wheel 29 and ives it another quarter turn with the resu tiat the shears are closed and the white thread is as severed and its end clamped by the thin spring plate The red'thrcad is now in work to make the stripe and the star wheels are left in the position shown in the figure, with their narrow teeth down in the path oil the pins and it changing; of the y th l. to continue then as the machine continur i long; pin 50 will operate the star who again by engaging their narrow teeth, and this will throw the white yarn carrier down to introduce the white yarn and the red yarn carrier will be thrown up to put it out of work when the middle pin operates on the wide tooth of the star wheel 28 and the shears will be opened and closed as above described, together with the clamp.

The pin 50 may now be rendered inoperatire for the continued use of? the white yarn, supposing the body of th n, fabric to be white, therefore the cam ("aids raised to the position. shown to push inwardly the pin 50 so that it will not operate against the nar row teeth of the star wheels and further the hxcd middle pin n1 is not long enough to reach out to the narrow teeth but long till enough only to reach the broad teeth which are now above the plane of the pin, and fur-- ther as the low pin 60 does not ope "ate the star wheels at all, the machine will continue knitting white or the body l abric as long as the parts are in the position shown.

When the cam 6:2 operates the pin 50 iii-- wardly and the pin (it) outwardly it places said pin (50 in position to be operated by the cam G2 it this should be lowered and when so operated the pin 60 will be forced innrdly and through the lever the pin fill will be forced outwardly and thus be in po sition to operate upon the narrow teeth oil the star wheels for again changing; the yarn to red yarn. The cam 62 having been low-- cred from the position Shown into the plane of the pin ()0 and having operated said pin to make the pin 50 oti'cctive on the star wheel remains in this nosition s i w lian r s 1st,

wheels in succession) next lift the other yarn guide out of operation (by throwing the controller 8 in the opposite direction or rather inthe same direction which it had when returning to neutral position,) and fourth close the shears, these last two opera tions being performed by the pin 51 acting in succession on the star wheels.

With the narrow and broad tooth star wheels the parts will be controlled to work in time, forinstance, supposing one of the v star wheels has been turned accidentally so that its broad tooth is lowermost while the narrow tooth is lowermost on the adjacent star wheel. This, if it be star wheel 28 which is out of time, would cause two ends a or yarns to be in work at once, but this condition would not continue because the star wheel would be immediately turned by contact of one of the pins with its broad tooth and thus one yarn would be thrown out and the other left in.

When both yarns are in, this condition will exist only during the distance between pins 50 and 51. In other words, if either star wheel gets out of position the fixed pin 51, operating on the broad toothof either wheel, will bring it into the position shown with the narrow teeth lowermost.

I have shown the knitting head only diagrammatically. Its cams may be operated in various ways.

It will be observed that in the present form of machine all the stripers areoperated simultaneously to change yarns, and .while this and the means for doing this form a part of my invention, said invention in some of its features and aspects is not limited in this regard.

Any suitable detent means-may be provided for the star wheel. I have indicated in Fig. 2 spring pressed detents 72 adapted to engage recesses 73, Fig. 3,-in. the shafts of the star wheels.

I claim 1. In combinatlon with a circular knitting machine, a stripe! comprising a pair 0;" yarn feed fingers movable to and from operative position, a yarn cutter, a controller for operating the yarnfingers, a vertical shaft and a sleeve concentric thereto, one of said concentric parts being connected with the controller'and the other of said concentric parts incense being connected with the cutter, and connections for operating sald concentric parts to cause the controller to operate the yarn fina vertical shaft carrying said controller, a

sleeve mounted "on the vertical shaft, connections to the shaft and sleeve for operating them and a connection from the sleeve to the movable shear blade for operating the same.

3. In combination in a circular rib knitting machinc, a cylinder and dial, a dial post, a plurality of yarn changing means each comprising a. pair of yarn fingers and a yarn cutter, a pair of star wheels on the fixed frame, one for all of the pairs of yarn fingers and one for all the cutters, two contacts on and traveling with a moving part of the machine to operate in succession upon each of the star wheels, a cam for determining the times of action of the contacts upon the star wheels, pattern mechanism for moving the cam, connections leading from one star wheel to all the pairs of yarn fingers at the different feeds to move oue yarn finger into work before the other yarn linger is withdrawn from work, and for then operating said other yarn finger to inoperative position. and connections from the other star wheel to each of the cutters at the difi'cre'nt feeds for opening all the cutters on one operation of the star wheel and for closing all the -cutters upon a second operation of,

the star wheel, said connections including a pair of disks one above the other supported at a point above the dial cap and moving about the dial post, substantially as described.

4. In combination in a circular knitting machine, a plurality of stripcrs, each including a pair of yarn fingers and a yarn cutter and clamp, a member movable circumferentially' and about the axis of the knitting head, connections from said member to the yarn fingers for changing them, a second member movable circumferentially and about the axis of the knitting head, connections from said second member to the cutters, a star wheel for operating the said first member by successive steps and in one direction for each. yarn changing action, a star wheel for operating the second member first in one direction and then in the other for the yarn severing action, and means for operating each star wheel twice for each yarn chang-' ing action substantially as described.

5. In combination in a circular knitting machine, a plurality of stripers, each comrename prising two pivotally mounted yarn feed fingers movable in a vertical plane, and a yarn cutter and clamp, an oscillating con troller mova ble ina horizontal plane and having a cam action on said feed fingers for changing their relative positions, a circumferentially movable member arranged about the axis of the knitting head, connections therefrom to the oscillatin controller, a second circumferentially mova le member arranged about the axis of the knitting head, connections from said second member to theyarn cutters to move them simultaneously, said connections including a member oscillating about the axis of the oscillating controller, and means for operating said circumferentially movable members, said means operating the first circumferentially movablemember step by step first in one direction and then in the other for'performing successive yarn changing action and operating the second circumferentially movable member first in one direction and then in the other for performing the cutting operations,substantially as described.

6. In combination a rotary needle cylinder, a'yarncha-nger comprising a pair of arn fingers and a yarn cutter, a controler. swinging about avertical axis, for opcrating the yarn fingers, a member arranged concentric with and turnable about the axis of the controller, a connection from said member to the yarn cutter, a pair of mem-' bers rotatable about the axis of the needle cylinder, a connection between one of said members and the controller, a connection. be tween the other of said members and the concentric member which operates the cut ter, a pair of star wheelsron the fixed frame, a connection from one star Wheel to one of the pairot rotary members, a connection from the other -star Wheel to the other one of the pair of rotary members, a pair oi. contacts traveling with the needle cylinder for operating each of the star Wheels twice during the passage of the contacts past the star'wheels, to move the controller step by step and to open and close the yarn cutter, and pattern controlled cam means control ling the action of the contacts, substantially as described.

7. In combination in a circular knitting machine, a plurality of stripers, each in cluding a pair of yarn changers and a yarn cntter, a rotary motion transmitting device connected With the yarn changers, a second.

rotary motion transmitting device connected with the yarn cutter, and means for operating said devices, said devices being selt corrooting to keep in time should. their relative time of operation be disturbed.

lln testimony whereof, I afhx my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GEOhGE LAWSUN BALLARH,

Witnesses;

IsAnnL G. ltareron,

OWEN Batman,

hit t 

